Apart from he was a stalker or I got catfished, the most common complaint from online daters has to be, they didn’t look anything like their picture!. Call it superficial, but people don’t want to be fooled when it comes to anything – especially a potential partner’s looks. Now, one online dating site is attempting to make it harder for people to misrepresent themselves.
Zoosk, a top dating site/app with over 25 million visible profiles, is launching photo verification.
Users can submit video selfies to the Zoosk team, which are supposed to capture their faces from multiple angles. Zoosk will then review the videos, and determine whether or not the user’s profile photo is an accurate representation of how they actually look.
If Zoosk gives users the green light, a “Photo Verified” badge will appear on their profile.
It’s basically like getting a Twitter verified check mark, but for dating.
“One of the most important concerns of online daters is going out with someone who doesn’t really resemble their profile picture,” said Shayan Zadeh, co-founder and CEO of Zoosk. “By innovating a system for our members to validate the accuracy of existing profile photos, we believe we can create better first-date experiences that will lead to lasting relationships.”
Obviously, the goal is to engender more trust in the online dating process. It’s common for people to use photos in their profiles from when they were 20 pounds lighter, or 20 years younger. Zoosk says that inaccurate profile pictures are a top concern of its users.
Image via Zoosk